Planning a Photo Walk?

Getting together with fellow photographers is always fun – lots of other like-minded people, plenty to talk about, and great for networking, right?  But, at some point you’re gonna have to start walking around and taking pictures.  I’ve found with most photo walks that I’ve attended it helps to have a game plan.  Whether you are the organizer or an attendee really doesn’t matter too much because these tips are intended for both.  Here’s what I mean:

1.  Check the weather – It’s always important to dress the part, and the last thing you want is to be under-dressed (cold) or over-dressed (too hot).  It’s a good idea to check the forecast and to dress in layers.  Allow yourself a layer of removal or addition if needed.  I have several apps built into my Android phone, as that makes it quick and easy to check both the night before and the day of…here’s the four I’ve heard the most about (I use #1)

  1. Accuweather
  2. Weather Channel
  3. Weatherbug
  4. iMap

2.  Check the map – With the abundance of online mapping utilities like Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and Mapquest, it’s easier than ever to see where you will need to be and plan your travel time to the starting point accordingly.  I always allow about 15 extra minutes in case of traffic, Starbucks stops, or other time killers… (if you’re the organizer, publish or share your route with the group so people know where to meet and where the anticipated walk will take everyone…)

Google Map of USA

3.  Check your gear – I’m guilty of forgetting things myself on outings, but it helps if you have a checklist to reference the night before when packing (batteries, memory cards, business cards, cell phone, camera, lenses, etc.)

Gear Check

4.  Pick a theme – Whether you are the organizer or an attendee, it helps to at least have a starting point or an idea of what the goal is of the walk.  For instance, on a trip to the Columbia zoo a few years back, one attendee picked a theme of “faces” and came back with some incredible portraiture of the animals in their various habitats.  Often photo walk leaders or organizers may start with something general like “architecture” in an urban location, but it can help to narrow that for your own creative vision to get more detailed.  Narrowing the theme of architecture to something like vertical lines, arches, or even something as simple as windows can help spark that creativity needed to make photo walks productive.  Don’t forget to check with other photogs on their creative path and help and encourage them too (which could be a tip in and of itself!)

Signs of Encouragement

5.  Be ready to adapt – Circumstances change, weather can change, and even the scenery can change.  I was on an outing just last week to capture the moon at its perigree and the skyline was pretty blatantly thrown off by the recent addition of a crane to the area. If you aren’t able to adapt to changing environments, outings can be less than satisfying, so be open to change at a moments notice!

Bad Skyline Shot

That’s just five of many tips and ideas on how to make photo walks successful, enjoyable, and productive.  As always though, there’s plenty more where that came from!  What about you?  Have you been on any recent photo walks?  What’s worked or works for you when you go on outings with fellow photographers? Sound off in the comments with your own ideas!

 

What’s a Perigee?

Without getting too scientific on everyone, an exciting moment is going to happen this weekend – it’s the perigee!  What is the perigee?  It’s the point when the moon and the earth reach their closest point between each other.  The moon is going to look super huge this coming weekend, and this will be a great opportunity to really get some stellar shots of the moon through even the more common focal lengths we all have in our gear bags.  Even with a 70-200 lens and a 1.4 TC, you should be able to get some pretty awesome full frame shots of the moon, with some pretty good detail!

Here’s a couple tips to scheduling a good moon shoot:

1.  Check the weather in your area – It goes without saying that you don’t want a lot of cloud cover, but at the same time, clear skies mean no heat is staying in the atmosphere.  Since it’s still relatively early in the year, standing around at midnight could be a tad chilly.  Plan ahead, dress warmly, and you’ll be able to stay out longer to get the shots you really want without being cold or uncomfortable.

South Carolina Sky

#2.  Location, location, location – In photography, as in real estate, location can mean everything, and a lunar shoot is no exception, even though it’s in the sky.  Depending on the type of view you are looking for, you may want to find some place that gives you a completely unobstructed view of the horizon.  Alternately, you may want to include something “human sized” to give a sense of comparison.

Denver Skyline

#3.  Pick your gear – In astro-photography, you will most likely be shooting at the longest end of your reach, so don’t bother taking the whole kit-n-kaboodle.  Maybe take a variable zoom to stuff in a cargo pocket in case you want a “behind the scenes” kind of shot if going with others, but no more than two lenses are needed.  Don’t forget your tripod and extra batteries, as well as a flashlight.  Other essentials I have on my checklist include my wallet and cell phone.

What stakeouts have you planned in your area?  Taking any friends?  What about your own suggestions and tips for lunar photography?  Sound off in the comments!

Three Tips to Shooting Better Macros

At some point, the allure of macro photography in all its intricate detail entices us all to either buy or rent some glass that has the power to take us to the enchanting 1:1 ratio where we can see things full size!  When you do take the plunge though, there’s a couple things to keep in mind when capturing macro-scale photographs:

Shell in the Sun

#1 – Stay sharp or stay home – Nothing loses the appeal of macro enthusiasts more than an image that is out of focus, at the macro level.  There are notable exceptions of course, but we are zooming in close to see the details, so unless they are sharp, we just aren’t interested!

Antennae

#2 – Keep it simple – Too often, people will jump in and try to capture something highly detailed in a macro shot.  The problem is that often times you are dealing with a very shallow depth of field (low apertures in the 2.8 – 1.4 range), which means detail is lost either in the foreground or the background, or both!  This can be appealing in some cases, to have the fade from sharpness to blur, but in others, it’s not as effective, which means you’ll have to deal with focus-stacking.  It’s kind of tricky, so when starting out, stick to simple compositions like flower buds, water drops, and other such objects of interest (even a quarter’s edge can be appealing).

Leaf and Water

#3 Be aware of your background – Even though the background is often way out of focus, the color or tone of that background can make or break your photo.  Make sure it’s either a complementary color, or sufficiently blurred as to be indecipherable.  This shot I took on our street, with the road and vehicles beyond the branches.  They are so out of focus though, it’s literally impossible to tell the difference.

Raindrops on the Street

So, what types of scenes sound appealing to your macro instincts?  Consider buying a macro lens (or renting) and taking one out for a test spin.  With these three tips (and others) you will be well on your way to taking and making phenomenal images!

Yellow on Yellow

Don’t forget to sound off in the comments with your own tips, tricks, thoughts, and shots on macro photography!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here gain for another round of photo goodness!

 

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Depth of Field Matters!

When we approach the topic of depth of field, most people nod along about how the composition can change pretty dramatically when moving between various apertures – but have you ever really studied the differences?  Take some time and do an exercise.  It’s not that difficult, and really seeing the differences in photos can totally lift the roof on your approach to composition.  For this exercise, I took a scrap piece of lumber, and nailed 6 framing nails into it about two inches apart from each other.

Step two was to set up the lighting, the tripod, and the “wood art” in a scene where i could adjust the aperture and keep everything else constant.  With my own little studio set here in the house, that was accomplished easily enough.  I set the focal point on the nearest nail, and dialed in the exposure I wanted.  Then, I switched to manual focus so as to not bump or have the camera try to shift it for me and dialed through the various f-stops.

Step three – simple post production:  camera calibration, white balance, and lens correction.  I also applied a 75 value to the sharpening slider from the detail panel, but did so universally.  So, with everything but aperture constant, here’s the results:

Aperture f2.8

Aperture f4.0

Aperture f5.6

Aperture f8.0

Aperture f11

Aperture f16

 

So, at this point you should have enlarged the photos above, and scrolled through the entire gallery so you can see exactly what is sharp at f2.8 all the way through f16.  By the time you get to the end, so much has changed and often gradually, it’s hard to see the difference.  But if you look at the f2.8 and f16 shots side-by-side – they are worlds apart compositionally speaking.  Now I grant you, nails hammered into a 2×4 piece of lumber 2″ apart is not the most artistic piece ever shot, but it hopefully illustrates what can happen to a photo simply by changing the aperture and keeping everything else constant!

WHere do you think creatively adjusting your depth of field would work?  Try to think outside the box here too.  A few ideas for starters:

  • A flower from close up…
  • A portrait shot, with background blurred
  • Macro photography – bugs and insects, computer chips and parts

There’s a whole world out there with plenty of opportunities to create gorgeous photos with only your creativity to limit you.  Where do you want to go today?

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Running Off the Grid

Batteries

A friend of mine is going on an extended backpacking trip, and space is already tight, so he approached me to see if I had any ideas on how he should go about running his SLR for an extended period of time without being able to charge or re-charge.  A couple ideas came to mind:

1.  First, just buy a battery for each day – not the cheapest route, but the easiest way to ensure power is had all along.

2.  Second, what about renting these accessories?  If he has two of his own, then renting 5 would run half the cost…

3.  Another option was to get a battery grip.  Here he could use his own for as long as possible, then switch to disposable AA batteries…

4.  Last but not least, solar power…I’ve considered these and even saw them in REI – they were a tad expensive and I am not even sure how one would go about connecting these to an AC charger.  You’d need the solar panel, then a male USB/AC converter, then the charger.  And the other factor would be how much of a charge you could get off that…in addition to weather concerns.  What if it’s not all that sunny?

Given the options, my final recommendation was to go with option 3.  It’d be a sound investment, would actually make the gear easier to hold on to, and often more stable than going w/out.  He agreed and will likely buy based on my recommendation.  It’s always a good feeling to be helpful to others, but before he does, I asked him to hold off for a day or two if possible, because I wanted to throw the question out to the readership…what ideas does the audience have for my friend?

Some of the rental outfits I’ve pointed him to include:

I’ve not had the benefit of experience with any of these vendors as we have a local camera rental shop that gives pretty good rates, so I always rent local from them.  Anyone have any experience with the national rental outfits?  Would really be helpful to get some external input here as he is leaving soon on his trip and could use some direction.  Sound off with your ideas!

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The March Contest Begins

With March now underway, and the February giveaway wrapped up (check my rare weekend posts making this announcement), I thought I’d take a moment and let the cat out of the bag.  This month it’s quite an exciting prize!  The winner is going to be awarded a 17″ Tether Table (a $200 retail value)!  As if that’s not enough, the folks over at Tether Tools have also generously have thrown in a Jerk Stopper tethering kit that prevents your cables from snagging.  If you want to know more about it right now, stop over to their website and check out the product line:  Tether Table Product Page

In the meantime, here’s the nitty gritty details for the contest:

  • The Number:  1 image per person
  • The Size:  Longest side must be between 600-800 pixels.
  • The window:  30 day window for capture date (nothing earlier than February of 2011
  • The theme is:  Flat
  • The deadline:  March 31st at midnight (my time)
  • The rest:  You can read more about it at the Contest Guidelines page and the Rules of Engagement

Good luck everyone, and here’s the link:  March Contest Giveaway

For the record, the Tether Table will be very slightly used, as you know a hardware review is likely forthcoming quite soon on this equipment…but then again, that’s something to look forward to, right?

As a final postscript today, a new poll is up on the sidebar, so if you don’t visit the archives much (maybe take some time soon – lots of good stuff there! 🙂 ), be sure to take a moment and sound off in the latest poll:

[poll id="17"]

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I Need Your Help!

A fellow photographer mentioned to me the other day that there did not seem to be a good resource online where one could go and read reviews on photography books.  Sure, there’s the canned ones from Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc., but nothing that was out there just for photography books!

I started searching and sure enough – she was right!  So, as a sort of philanthropic venture, I decided to create a website for this purpose.  While the design is a work in progress (we all know about WIP’s, right?). but the site is live and the forums are ready for people to start contributing their own reviews on any number of photography books.  I’ve tried to break the categories out in a hopefully logical structure, so take a peek, register (it’s free) and start sharing your own thoughts about books from your own library!

Who knows – in time, this could become a pretty exhaustive library of reviews, and discussions on the state of the photography book industry!  To do it though, I need your help, so take a moment and register today!  Happy reading!

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February Winners – Everyone!

Given the rigors of the week, closing out the February contest was not high enough on my radar, but having stirred from the hydro-codone-induced sleep, I remembered that it’s time to close out February and begin March contests.  As you may recall, for February, a $50 discount card is being offered up to all participants in the February LDP Contest giveaway, so for those of you who participated and were patiently awaiting the discount code – it’s been published in the February contest thread.

And now – the moment you’ve all been waiting for:  the February co-winners, each of whom gets $150 in printing from NPL, the ones whose images were most compelling, the ones…all right already, they are:

Mason Long

Mason Long

Frank Sammut

Frank Sammut

You can find their respective Flickr streams of these and their other photo libraries here and here respectively!  Congrats to both of you and I’ve sent your names over to our contact with Nations Photo Lab so they can deliver the coupon codes for your prizes to you!  Thanks again to Nations Photo Lab for their generous donations for the month of February!  Be sure to tune in on Monday for the announcement of the March contest!

Did You Know…

This last week has been kind of rough – after teaching in Minnesota on Sat., my whole time schedule was thrown off and I never really have been able to get my body clock back in sync.  (I don’t know how traveling types do that…)  That, combined with a little out-patient surgical procedure on Friday made for a lot of distractions.  So, apologies in advance for being a little hit and miss with the blog posting.

Today though, I thought I’d share a little-known (or at least not-often-discussed) tip about the Canon EOS camera line.  Did you know that there is a silent shooting mode?  To enable this mode of shooting, simply switch your camera to the live shooting mode (where you compose your image using the LCD instead of the viewfinder), and when pressing the shutter, it’s much quieter than when normally pressed!  I knew about this, but honestly had not used it in quite a while.  It’s one of those “Oh yeah…..!” moments and when reviewing some material, I came across this from the owner’s manual.  Here’s the page directly from the 40D guide:

Silent

This is a very handy feature to have if you don’t want to interrupt an emotional moment during an event (say a bride and groom kissing, a baby sleeping, or some other such occasion).Got your own unknown or not-often-mentioned feature to share about your own gear?  Sound off in the comments!  Have a great weekend all and we’ll see you back here next week!

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Three Reasons You Should Be Using a Card Reader

Card Reader from B&H Photo

One of the most surprising things I learned about during our recent trip to Brainerd, MN was that many photographers are tethering their cameras to their computers for transferring photos over for processing.  While tethering via cable is always an option, there are many risks to doing so, and during our talk, we took a few minutes to share some reasons why it’s better to use a card reader than to import from your camera.  Since there were so many people that seemed to appreciate the insights, I thought I’d take some time to share some of those insights here:

  1. Speed – Card readers have nothing else to do other than transfer data onto and off of a card to a computer.  No camera firmware is required, no menus need to be loaded, and no power is needed.  It’s a simple plug-and-play process for practically any computer and you can increase your transfer speeds significantly by taking this route over camera direct transfers.  Seriously…with the super fast UDMA cards out there today, you can really see a decrease in transfer times, which gets you on with other things even that much quicker.
  2. Reliability – Because cameras are such advanced devices that have so many working parts and components, the process of connecting them to a computer does take a certain toll and if the cable is frayed, or a connection is lost, or even power is lost, you can risk losing and/or corrupting your images during the transfer process.  Eliminate the risk of losing those precious memories you’ve created and use a card reader!
  3. Conserving Battery drain – In Minnesota it was cold!  We were in negative temperatures for a good portion of our stay, and with lower temps comes decreased battery time.  If we had to deal with draining our camera batteries to transfer images to a laptop or desktop computer, they likely would not have lasted.  It’s important here to remember that plugging a camera into a USB port isn’t like plugging in a phone or other devices.  Plugging in doesn’t charge the batter, it discharges the battery!  Something to keep in mind when conserving your battery life.

So, what kind should you get?  The answer here (as always) starts with “It depends…”  What kind of camera and card are you using? Do you have multiple cameras and multiple card format types?  Cards range in size and format from SD, CF, to Memory Sticks, and other proprietary sizes and shares.  Formats also include the new UDMA which increases write/read transfer rates, and varying capacities from extended capacity (XC) and other older ones which may require specific types of readers.  Check these considerations before making a purchase.  My suggestion though is to get a reader that can read both standard capacity cards as well as the XC formatted ones.  These can be found for as little as $5 through sites like Newegg.com and Amazon, but the better quality ones are available through camera retailers like B&H Photo, Adorama, and Sammy’s.

There are, of course, other reasons to use a card reader over a camera for data – and I could go on with a quite extensive list here, but would really like to hear from others:  what are your reasons for using a particular transfer setup?  Do you have a reader preference?  Or are you using the camera to tether?  Sound off in the comments with your own ideas and suggestions!

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